A Bill to reform the local tax system in Wales, including
non-domestic rates and council tax, has today (16 July 2024) been
passed by the Senedd.
The Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill establishes a series of
changes to improve the tax systems. It will make them fairer and
work better for the future needs of Wales, by ensuring local
taxes reflect economic circumstances more regularly.
For non-domestic rates (also known as business
rates), the Bill will:
- increase how often the values of all non-domestic properties
in Wales are updated, to once every three years;
- provide more flexibility to make changes to reliefs and
exemptions;
- enable changes to the calculation of payments for different
categories of ratepayers;
- close known tax avoidance arrangements and increase the
ability to tackle future avoidance in a more responsive way;
- enable improvements to the information provided by
ratepayers.
In relation to council tax, the Bill will:
- establish a five yearly cycle of property revaluations from
April 2028 onwards, and allow Welsh Ministers to amend future
revaluation years should circumstances require this;
- provide more flexibility for the organisation and labelling
of tax bands if required, to fit future possible redesigns of the
system;
- ensure the continuation of our national Council Tax Reduction
Scheme, providing essential financial help to low-income
households;
- provide more flexibility to make changes to discounts and
persons disregarded from paying council tax.
Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office,
, said:
This is the first Welsh local government finance bill since
devolution. It introduces important changes to the local tax
system in Wales, reforming the system to make it more consistent,
effective, and to give us flexibility in the future. Extensive
research and experience of operating the current systems for more
than two decades highlighted a range of limitations and the case
for change was clear.
With the Bill now being approved by the Senedd, we will have a
framework designed for modern Wales, and the necessary
levers to adapt local taxation in the future as
circumstances and priorities change.
